


My Friends Are Everything

by Taylor_WritesFanfics



Category: All Time Low (Band)
Genre: Ace!Zack Merrick, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Bi!Jack Barakat, Bi-Curious!Alex Gaskarth, Other, Platonic Soulmates, Queerplatonic Relationships, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, it's set in start of the band to early touring years, their matching skull tattoos are their soulmate marks
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-12
Updated: 2021-03-12
Packaged: 2021-03-20 07:08:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,252
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30001155
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Taylor_WritesFanfics/pseuds/Taylor_WritesFanfics
Summary: Alex Gaskarth's skull soulmark was strange to begin with, but it was even stranger that he shared that mark with his three bandmates.His three best friends.
Relationships: Alex Gaskarth & Jack Barakat & Rian Dawson & Zack Merrick
Comments: 2
Kudos: 4





	My Friends Are Everything

…

Alex first saw Jack’s soulmark when they went swimming in the summer before 9th grade. Perched atop his right shoulder, the sketchy, notebook-doodle-style skull perfectly matched the one hiding under his left ear, beneath his messy, bob-ish cut hair. _Holy shit, Jack Barakat was his soulmate._

“What?” Jack said, looking at Alex’s shocked, red face. 

Alex’s hand immediately went to cover his neck. He didn’t want Jack to know that they were soulmates just yet, that would definitely mess something up right now. 

“Sorry dude, just think your soulmark is cool,” Alex replied. He wasn’t lying.

“I mean, it is pretty badass.” 

Alex laughed awkwardly, rubbing his hand against his neck, being sure to make sure his hair always covered his mark. 

He’d been hiding it since he started middle school, worried he’d encounter his soulmate at any moment, and frankly, he didn’t want to be destined for a middle school crush. 

But if anyone were to be his soulmate, he didn’t think it would be Jack. Like sure, he felt drawn to him since the day they met, but he hardly felt like it was anything more than friends. He considered that it might come with time, and decided Jack didn’t need to see his matching mark. Not for a long time.

…

“Can you believe we’re starting high school?” Jack asked Alex as they gazed up at the stars above their local park. 

“Hardly,” Alex replied, feeling his chest start to swell as he looked over at Jack. “I kinda still feel like I’m in seventh grade.”

“I wonder if we’ll be cool.”

“Have you seen yourself?” Alex jokes, elbowing Jack lightly in the side. “You’re not gonna be cool.”

“I’m gonna be so cool,” Jack laughs. He stares up at the stars again, Alex watching intently. He loves the way that Jack smiles at the bright skylights, and the way he dances around when he plays. He felt his chest flutter as Jack looked at him again. _Is this what love feels like?_

“Do you think we’ll start a band?” Jack asked.

“Fuck yeah,” Alex replies quickly. Playing music, being in a band, is all he ever wanted. “I think we’ll make it big.”

“Man I hope so, that would be fucking awesome.” The way Jack smiles at him makes Alex’s heart flutter. Jack was his best friend, he was sure of that. 

They walked back to Jack’s house together, as Alex was staying over that night. It wasn’t long, but a walk around Baltimore sure made him feel at home. Passing all of the places he wanted to play shows at, all of the places he used to frequent. It felt like they were his. 

When they finally got to Jack’s, they went straight down to the basement. They had their set of movies to binge. 

As they got into their pyjamas, Alex saw Jack’s soulmark again. His chest fluttered once more, and he played with the hair by his ears a little. _Should I tell him?_

“Dude, you ok? You look a little-” Jack’s eyes scanned over Alex, flushed red. 

“Yeah, yeah, I’m-” Alex thought it over for a second. This was the time, he had to. “I have something to show you.”

“What, your boner?”

“Fuck you, Barakat, this is serious.” Alex tried to push his hair out of the way of his mark, something he’d hidden from everyone for years. “I need you to look at this.”

Jack went closer to Alex, pushing his hair out of the way more so he could see his full mark. “You- your,”

“We’re soulmates, Jack,” Alex states, “our marks are the same.”

Jack’s face was stationary. He stepped away a little bit, taking Alex’s hand. “I mean, I had a suspiscion I was bi.”

Alex smiled at him, “I don’t know if I’m ready yet, Jack. It’s a lot, right now, and I don’t want to like, ruin this friendship.”

“Yeah, I get it,” Jack replied, “if we’re soulmates, we’ve got a lifetime. So we don’t have to, right now.” 

The two sit down on the couch, and Jack wraps his arm around Alex’s arm. Alex rests his head on Jack’s shoulder, and they cuddle into each other. They get closer, until their limbs are wrapped around each other. 

Alex rests his head on Jack’s chest, feeling safe and warm with Jack’s arms wrapped around him. “I don’t know what I want,” he mutters. 

“We don’t have to be anything,” Jack replies, running his fingers through Alex’s hair. “It might be safer for us not to be anything.”

Alex’s eyes widen, “Yeah, right.”

“We can just, cuddle, and that can be it.” 

“Yeah, that’s nice.”

…

Jack entered his first-period ninth-grade French class, feeling a little nervous. But he did see a kid in a Face to Face shirt, and deemed it a good reason to talk to him. He was stockier in build and shorter than Jack, with wavy light brown hair, resting right around his shoulders with bangs, hairs curling at the ends. 

“Hey, you like Face to Face?” Jack asked, sitting down in the desk next to him. 

“Uh, yeah,” he replied, eyeing Jack strangely. 

“Cool, I’m Jack,” he held out his hand, offering a handshake.

“Rian,” he replied. He hesitated, but shook the taller boy’s hand. 

“You play anything?”

“Yeah, I play drums.”

Jack smiles wide. “Fuck yeah! We’re looking for a drummer. You should come over and jam.”

He does this repeatedly, over several days, asking almost every class. Eventually, Jack’s senseless nagging finally got to him, and Rian agreed to go over and play. 

Jack was very excited to have Rian come over, and finally meet Alex. He had a feeling they’d hit it off, and they’d be a great band. 

As he approached Jack’s house that afternoon, Rian wondered why the fuck he was going over to play music with some kid he barely knew. Just because they liked the same bands didn’t mean they were gonna be friends, and especially didn’t mean they were gonna make a good band. But his fears were waived when Jack opened the door.

“‘Sup man, my friend Alex is gonna jam with us, I think you’ll like him, he’s into the same shit we are.” 

Rian nodded, and followed Jack to his basement. “Cool.” 

Alex was roughly playing _Heart-Shaped Box_ when Jack came back with Rian. “So you’re the guy Jack keeps going on about.”

“I guess. I’m Rian.”

“Alex.” They shake hands and Rian eyes the run-down drum kit Jack has. 

“Is that what I’m gonna play?” he asks, pointing at the kit. 

“For today I guess, if it works out we can move practice to your place,” Jack replies, earning an eye-roll from Rian. 

He sits down and does a little warm-up fill. It’s not a good kit, but it’ll work fine for today. “So what do you guys wanna play?”

Jack answers, “ _All the Small Things?_ ” 

“Sure, you ready?” After seeing a couple nods, Rian counts in “1 2 3 4!”

Oddly enough they’re not terrible, playing pretty well. Rian wondered who would come in and sing, but was more focused on not messing up.

It was Alex that sang. “All the small things / True care, truth brings.”

They continued through the song with relative ease, being surprisingly together with only a few flubs. 

“You know, we might actually be pretty good,” Jack said when they finished playing. 

“Yeah, but we still need a bassist.” Alex replied. 

“I think I can find someone.” 

…


End file.
